Skip to main content

The Mystery of Young!

I was recently doing some research on Chinese Wash in light of my latest book (The Conjure Cookbook as it is to be called) and came on the Lucky Mojo page regarding Young, the fellow who evidently created Chinese Wash. Catherine Yronwode supposes him to be the same as Lewis de Clairmont, and possibly known by a few other names, but has no name for the person beyond just "Young."

I have in my own collection an old book called "The Devil's Legacy to Earth Mortals" printed by an M. Young (I am told, courtesy of the LOC, that the "M" stands for Martin) and in it are several advertisements for other books his company makes. Some of these books I've seen for sale in old conjure catalogues, like "Old Gypsy Madge's Fortune Teller" and "The Mystery of Love Making Solved." M. Young also produced a book called "The Great Book of 400 Secrets" which was a book for household recipes (inks, soaps, etc.) and a few of the formulas he printed were called Young's _______, for example "Young's Cheng Wing Starch Polish" and he indicates within the text that he does (or did at the time) sell those Young products on his own. The Great Book of 400 Secrets can be read here.

I also have seen in certain old curio catalogues the exact cover art for Devil's Legacy, but attached to different titles -- and usually in catalogues that list other M. Young titles. I don't know if that means its the same book or not. King Curio #45 lists it with the title "The Magical Science of Black Arts" for example, right next to Gypsy Madge and the Book of Great Secrets (possibly the same as the Great Book of 400 Secrets?)

M. Young's publishing company began at least in the late 1870s, as the Great Book of 400 Secrets has a copyright of 1878 (this being the earliest date I've seen on a Young book.) According to Yronwode's page, the Young of Chinese Wash fame gave up his copyrights in 1940. If we assume he's the same man as Martin Young he'd have had to have been pretty old by that point -- probably in his late 80s at best. Now, that would make a good excuse for the fellow to sell off his copyrights rather than pay off a debt in cash, since someone that old's probably not expecting to get a lot more use out of them; but it also might be a sign that it is not the same person. Given that M. Young's books were still in print in the 1930s though, somebody was keeping up the publishing. Reportedly the Chinese Wash was sold by Oracle Products Co. and the books given up in 1940 to Joe Kay were printed by the Oracle label as well. So they weren't being printed under the publisher M. Young. This could point to a son or other relative of M. Young being the Young that ran Oracle and eventually sold off the book rights. Unfortunately I don't have any 1930s editions of the M. Young books to see who was printing them by that point.

If anyone's got some more information about either of the Youngs, send me an email will you? M. Young has been of interest to me ever since I bought that copy of The Devil's Legacy for $20 at a shop called Axis Mundi when I was in 9th grade. The possible Chinese Wash link makes things even more interesting.

EDIT: I also came on this -- http://www.arcane-archive.org/occultism/magic/folk/hoodoo//black-arts-pamphlet-1.php
There Yronwode says that The Devil's Legacy is the same book as Herman's Book on Black Art, and was picked up by a company called Wehman Bros. BUT -- she describes the contents of the book a little differently, suggesting maybe it's really not the same thing. She says it contains, "a straighforward history of diabolism, a respectful exegesis on mesmersism AND exposing fraud among 'manifesting' spiritualist mediums while examining their performances as a form of stage magic." But TDLTEM has nothing in it about stage magic, so that suggests maybe chapters were added in other editions.
Labels:
Want professional spellcasting? Visit Hoodoo Online for services, or browse my books on Amazon.

Popular posts from this blog

Paper-in-Shoe Spells

A popular and very traditional hoodoo spell, often used for any situation where you need to control someone with magic , is the namepaper-in-shoe spell. It's very easy: you write the target's name 3, 7, or 9 times on a paper (depending on intent and who's giving instruction) then fold it up, sometimes after dressing it with oils or powders, then put it in your shoe. This "keeps the person underfoot" or "stomps out the trouble" or "puts pressure on them" or any other number of metaphors. I have had this work several times over the years. In one instance, I was working for a very unpleasant boss, on a short-term job. It was the last day, and I only had about 3 hours of work left on the project; and I wanted him to up my pay for the day since it almost wasn't worth the trip across town for the amount he was paying me, for only 3 hours. He was very reluctant. So I wrote his name 3 times on a 5-dollar bill he'd given me, and dusted it...
Read more

Ammonia - A Spiritual Cleansing Agent for Magick

Ammonia is a strong cleansing agent in hoodoo magick, both physically and spiritually. In Edwardian times it was advised as an old home remedy for a nerve tonic (see recipe below.)  "Household ammonia" or "ammonium hydroxide" is a solution of NH3 in water. Household ammonia ranges in concentration from 5 to 10 weight percent ammonia. The Romans called the ammonium chloride deposits they collected from near the Temple of Amun (Greek Ἄμμων Ammon) in ancient Libya 'sal ammoniacus' (salt of Amun) because of proximity to the nearby temple of Amun, the chief god of ancient Thebes. Salts of ammonia have been known from very early times; thus the term Hammoniacus sal appears in the writings of Pliny, although it is not known whether the term is identical with the more modern sal-ammoniac (ammonium chloride). In the form of sal-ammoniac (nushadir) ammonia was important to the Muslim alchemists as early as the 8th century, first mentioned by the arab chemist...
Read more

Spiritual Use of Turpentine in Hoodoo and Witchcraft

  I have posted in the past about the use of giving one's bedding a spiritual cleansing from time to time.  I recently was laundering my pillows in the same load of laundry as some turpentine-soaked rags, with the result that the pillows emerged from the wash reeking of turpentine.  From a magical perspective, this may not be a bad thing. Turpentine is used in old-time hoodoo rituals for purposes such as uncrossing, protection and sometimes as a feed for mojo bags. Its solvent powers and strong odor do indeed suggest a powerful spiritual cleansing agent, and it is still used in some modern day cleaning products on a purely practical level for these same reasons.  Old time medicines sometimes included turpentine as a thing to drink, in small doses. A book from the 1850s, The Domestic Medicine Chest , recommends giving it to children in a dose of one teaspoon for killing tapeworm. Relatedly, in old time hoodoo cures for "live things" turpentine might be made into a tea...
Read more

Magical Water Recipes - Old Style Hoodoo, Real and Genuine Magic Spells from History

Hoodoo Style Magical Waters for Magic In hoodoo tradition, some of the oldest and most traditional ingredients are natural gathered waters. While cologne and perfume is sometimes classed as a water for conjure purposes, special waters are based on water, sometimes taken from a specific location. They can have additional ingredients added, but the magic is generally held to be in the water itself. They've become a little less common since the rise of commercial hoodoo, perhaps due to manufacturer's tendency to sell any old tap water as "alleged glory water" or whatever it's labeled; and also there is difficulty in shipping liquids like water that aren't inherent in somewhat thicker mixtures like soaps or oils. (For example, a bottle of oil won't evaporate if left out too long.)  Here's a list of some traditional hoodoo magical waters and how to make them: Glory Water Glory Water is a recipe I did not include in my Conjure Cookbook , as it's not ...
Read more

The Intranquil Spirit

(EDIT: Up to date information about the Intranquil Sprit can be found in my book  The Intranquil Spirit , available on Amazon.  This post has some incomplete information which is clarified in the book.) The Intranquility spell is, unfortunately, the first resort of many a rejected lover. In some ways it makes sense -- the more unhappy and forlorn one is about a breakup, the better this idea of making the other partner feel just as much so starts to sound. Unfortunately, this spell is often not well suited to a case. The purpose of the standard Intranquility spell is to have the person be tormented by the spirit until they make contact with you, or whomever the spell is being cast for. This means that if a person is already in good contact with their ex OR if they're one of those people who cannot restrain themselves from initiating contact, then this already is probably not the right spell for that case. If you've had an Intranquility spell cast and you make contac...
Read more